This is Absolution
by The Hero's Shadow
Summary: Dark Link and Oni Link each try to find their own place in Link, who is trying to come to terms with what he has been through.


**BA: If my stuff isn't canon, well..I know. I write this stuff for fun and because I'm majorly procrastinating my algebra.**

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><p>"I am the real Link!"<p>

"No, I am the real Link!"

Fierce, pupil-less, snow white eyes glared, face contorted in a snarl, at the other doppleganger that faced the 7 foot tall incarnation of a demon.

The other, with his pale hand seized around the handle of his black sword, with a blade made of onyx instead of steel, had a bloody gaze, one that was more sanguinary than heartless.

"Aren't you supposed to be a shadowed shell?" sneered the white haired demon with tribal markings, perhaps tattoos, adorned across his face. From his large hilt, he drew a sword that had two blades intertwined amongst each other to form a double helix strand.

It was a hazy and solemn forest they had met each other in, little fairy particles darting about blissfully and obvlious to the world. They lit up the faces of the two evil incarnations of the Hero of Time, offering more light than the drowning sun could through the immense canopy of wooden tunnel ceilings and tree leaves. There was something forlorn and unnatural about this forest. You could see the murmurs of impish spirits, and hear the silent fog for miles. It was dark and shadowed among the jagged stumps, and from here on, there were no more Skull Kids, or Kokiri Children.

Yet, there was no pathway into a Clock Tower either.

Neither Oni Link nor Dark Link knew whether they both had aimlessly wandered to the portal between Hyrule and Termina by mere coincidence, or if a more sinister voice had arose from their subconsciouses and secretly planned their acquaintance.

Dark Link, returning the smirk, replied with his sharp tongue, "I was freed from my dark bonding shell. Underneath, a pale and preserved body awaited me. Of course, I expected nothing more, as I was created as part of Link to be his shadow."

"A shadow? How pathetic," Oni roared. "Me? I have a much more prominent purpose. I am the embodiment of all of the evil Link stored inside him through all these years. I am all the evil he COULD be. I am the vessel that contains his nightmares, his deepest darkest thoughts and desires. The evil he WISHED he could have acted upon, but restricted himself in the name of JUSTICE. And you, a mere shadow?" Oni snorted out another laugh.

"How honorable, maintaining all of his greivances. You don't think I don't know all of his fears, the embarassing facts of his childhood and teenage years? The murderous intentions he had towards innocent people, all based off jealousy? The rage he felt, when after all those years of rescuing Princess Zelda and restoring her homeland, only to be sent away by her, the girl he loved? I am his shadow, therefor, I am a part of him. A part of him he will not, and cannot, embrace."

"So, Shadow," Oni Link grinned, "would you find it fair to have a duel to the death? The winner being cursed to bear Link's troubles for the rest of his existance?"

"Are you begging for a cheap suicide?" Dark Link swooned. "Because if so, I will deliver Link's fury upon you ten-fold."

"Imbecile, I contain the power of a God inside me."

"Ganondorf was my maker, my purpose was to kill. I suppose that makes us even?"

"Rationalize however you want, Shadow. My torments cannot be even worse then they already are now."

Dark Link drew the Dark Master Sword, the metallic shards of sound piercing the thick darkness of the forest. A fairy particle nestled in Dark Link's black hair.

Oni Link gripped the handle of the Double Helix sword with both hands.

"I hope you enjoy death," Oni Link murmured.

"The Goddesses have a special place for me," Dark Link sighed.

Upon those last words, the two Links lunged at each other, to determine the greater of two evils.

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><p>Sometime after saving Termina from the impending doom that was Majora's Mask and the catastrophy it had unleashed in the form of a moon falling onto the earth, Link, thoroughly exhausted and heartbroken, returned to Hyrule. Though the land and people had forsaken him, it was nontheless his homeland, and he knew of no other place to reside. Termina was a quaint place, with many people who adored him and offered him their homes graciously, but there was no familiarity, no feeling of welcome.<p>

The culture's revolution around masks and the Carnival of Time was foreign, and even Romani Ranch, a habitat that was familiar, was not the same as the ranch he had grown up with. He had grown up hearing about legends of the Goddesses, not the Four Giants.

Link, having aged a few years since his expidition in Hyrule as a pre-pubescent boy, was now in his teens. Somehow, he had managed to age between the repeating 3 day cycle that he had become interloped in.

He knew he had no place left in Kokiri Forest, among the never aging Kokiri children. Princess Zelda was always tied up in the affairs of royal business, and he doubted Impa would remove herself from Princess Zelda's side to help him find lodgings.

Defeated, he realized he had himself and his horse Epona, the only familiar face he had had through his daunting journeys. Upon saving Termina, he mounted her and rode back out to Hyrule Feild, through the portal between Hyrule and Termina and the many winding and overwhelming tunnels of the Lost Woods.

Whistling Epona's song softly through his teeth, an old friend came to mind: shimmering hair, as red as the Goron's ruby, and eyes as blue as the reflection of Lake Hylia. Malon.

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><p>Cocooned securely in the comfort of Lon Lon Ranch, Link had found Malon and Talon's hospitality to be the empty gauge in his heart. He had been lodged at the ranch for several months now, living there as a ranch hand and Malon's childhood friend in need. He wasn't sure where her friendliness was going, and he was content with the most stressful things in his life being Malon's uncertainty about their romance, and being barraged by Cuckoos every afternoon.<p>

But, lately, a strangeness developed in Link, something nobody could put their finger on. Even Link was unsure what it could be. He didn't feel sick...but he didn't feel healthy. He felt like he was about to launch himself off into one of the dark abyssal trenches in the Shadow Temple, or the empty upside-down sky of Stone Tower Temple.

A sense of great forboding enveloped in Link, and the anxiety in him drastically arose. If he had to explain it...it felt like two evils were meeting for the first time, dominating each other to prove who was the most evil.

Link had begun to awaken during the night, either from nightmares and flashbacks of the horrors he had endured, or from an inexplicable feeling that lurked right at the edge of his consciousness. Something he couldn't see, or hear, but could feel. It sounded so cliche, but it was the blind and deaf truth.

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><p>Sword blades clanged and echoed in the half-way forest. Dark Link parried, Oni Link thrusted his sword with enough force to leave a gape in Dark Link's sheild and knock him to the ground. No major wounds yet, but several cuts and stabs.<p>

"Link loved Zelda!" Dark Link screamed at Oni Link.

"Link was afraid of going Beneath the Well, despite hiding behind a Gibdo Mask!" Oni Link countered.

"Link once got lost in the Lost Woods and cried because he thought he was going to turn into a Stalfos until Saria came along!"

"Link fought an undead king, and learned a song that made heartless copies of himself!"

"Link listened to Zelda's screams as they fled a collapsing tower!"

From the bed in Lon Lon Ranch, Link tossed and turned in his sleep, sweating with a burning fever, as Malon kneeled beside his bed, holding his hand.

"Princess Zelda left him!" Dark Link cried.

"Princess Zelda left me..." Link sobbed, his voice breaking and hoarse, as he lay shaking in his bed.

"Link didn't save Romani the first time from the aliens!" exploded Oni Link, tears welling in his blank eyes.

"I didn't save Romani the first time from the aliens..." Link's sobs made him shudder even more. Tears streamed down Malon's face as she tried to nudge Link awake from his nightmarish sleep.

"YOU TRIED TO KILL HIM!"  
>"YOU MADE HIM KILL!"<br>"HE IS A MURDERER!"

"I AM A MURDERER!" Link's raspy voice caught in a choked shriek.

Malon jumped, fear making her tremble. She could hear Talon's footsteps rushing up the stairs.

"Die."

"DIE!"

From the peripherals of Link's barely conscious mind, Dark Link and Oni Link lunged at each other, with incredible amounts of momentum. They both could see their reflections in the other's sword, as they each felt the blades of their opponent slice through their throats.

The smell of iron and salt, accompanied by a vicious red liquid, drenched the grass inside the phantom ladden forest, the only company being the healing of old memories.

Once the heaved breathing of both Dark Link and Oni Link ceased, both now dead and unmoving, Link sat up, gasping, leaving behind the jumbled and fragmented nightmarish beings in his subsiding unconscious mind. A section of his life he could feel ebbing away.

Talon barged through the door. "What happened?"

"Link was having a nightmare, Daddy..." Malon whispered, throwing her arms around Link. He sighed, relieved to not be caught in the brigade of nightmares that had been unleashed during his sleep. Oddly enough though, he could not remember them now. He embraced Malon in return, drinking in her scent and the silkiness of her hair. He pulled back, and stretched, nervous that he might kiss her in this new feeling of relief.

"Is it early enough for breakfast?" Link asked, rubbing the back of his neck, grinning sheepishly.

Malon smiled and wiped her tears away. "Sure, I'll get something made up for all of us."

Content, Link let his head fall back into the Cuckoo-feather stuffed pillow, a strangely happy feeling in his heart. He remembered the ring fashioned from his old Gilded Sword and the Hylian Mirror Sheild found in the depths of the Spirit Temple that had hid in the tear in the mattress.

When Malon came back, Link decided he'd write the next chapter of his life himself.


End file.
